This invention provides a “sharps” container for both used pen needles (sometimes hereafter referred to as “PNs”) and used medical syringes (sometimes hereafter referred to as “MSs”). Pen needles are initially received by the user in the form of a pen needle assembly (“PNA”).
Because of well known health issues, the safe disposal of “sharps” such as used pen needles, pen needle assemblies, and syringes has long been a high priority for medical related professional facilities. Prior art sharps containers are found in venues such as hospitals, medical clinics, and retail establishments. These containers are usually securely attached to a wall or other solid base means and have a lock means to permit controlled and safe removal of used “sharps.”
However some containers are portable. Examples of prior art “portable” sharps containers for medical syringes are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,494,158 and 6,685,017.
Medical delivery pens (sometimes hereafter referred to as “MDPs”) have become widely used in place of, or in addition to, medical syringes, e.g., by diabetics, who frequently inject themselves several times a day with accurately measured, adjustable, pre-selected amounts of insulin or other medication. Medical delivery pens include a reservoir of medication and a distal end adapted to be attached (usually by thread means) to a pen needle assembly (PNA). As is well known (see, for example, FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,145) the pen needle assembly has (within an outer, generally cylindrical shield 28) a generally cylindrical housing 26 within which is mounted an axially extending hollow needle 21, (i) the proximal end 24 of which punctures a seal in the distal end 16 of the medical delivery pen 10 (to allow the flow there-through of medication) when the delivery pen is screwed into the proximal end of the pen needle cylindrical housing 26, and (ii) the distal end 22 of which is for insertion into tissue of the person requiring the medication. The pen needle assemblies typically also include (i) a removable thin sterile seal covering the proximal (large diameter) end of the outer shield and (ii) a removable tube-like shield covering the distal portion of the hollow needle. The pen needle assembly is then factory sterilized. The user of a pen needle assembly removes the seal from the outer shield, screws the pen into the proximal end of the pen needle housing, removes the outer and tube-like shields, sets the medical delivery pen for the desired dose of medication, and then inserts the distal end of the pen needle into the target tissue following which the medical delivery pen is actuated to deliver the desired dose of medication through the hollow needle into said tissue.
Many diabetics routinely administer medication to themselves several times a day by injection of a pre-selected quantity of insulin (or substitute medication) in liquid form; the correct amount of medication can be determined from prior professional medical instruction or by use of convenient portable blood analysis kits which are small, compact and provide rapid indicators of the user's blood sugar level. Some of the typical several daily injections are often done away from the diabetic's residence which has made the use of the portable, convenient medical delivery pens widespread. The aforesaid testing kits and the medical delivery pens are relatively small in size and can easily fit within a woman's purse or equivalent. A typical scenario for a diabetic at a restaurant for a meal is to first use the blood sugar testing kit to obtain an indicator of his or her blood sugar level. This information then facilitates programming or adjusting the medical delivery pen to deliver the desired quantity of medication. Then the pen with an attached PN (a PNA sans the outer cylindrical and tube shields) is used to inject the tissue and dispense the medication. These steps require a relatively short length of time and can be done with minimum loss of privacy.
Some people requiring multiple daily medicine injections use both medical syringes and medical delivery pens with PNs.
MDPs are also widely used by doctors, nurses and other professionals in their duties. Many individuals will request (sometimes insist) that an injection be done with a pen needle rather than a syringe. The aforementioned professionals are especially mindful of possible dangers from a needle stick and the possible unwanted “sticks” that occur in the professional world.
In a perfect world, the user (both individual and professional) of a pen needle assembly would, after the first use of a pen needle, carefully detach the used PN from the medical delivery pen and safely dispose said PN into a safe sharps container. The approved disposal procedure is (i) insertion of the distal end of the needle into the tube-like shield (sometimes omitted) and thence the shielded needle and PN cylindrical housing into the outer cylindrical shield, (ii) unscrewing of the medical delivery pen from the proximal end of the pen needle cylindrical housing, and (iii) careful placement of the used pen needle assembly into a safe sharps container. Further, in the “perfect” world, the user of a medical syringe would safely dispose the used syringe into a safe sharps container.
Alas, the recommended safe disposal procedures are not always followed. Used (and potentially dangerous) syringes, PNs or PNAs are routinely left in unsafe places where third parties may unwittingly be “stuck” with possible dire consequences. Examples of such unsafe places are purses, the pockets on the back of aircraft seats, private and public wastebaskets, garbage receptacles, dumpsters and empty milk or other unsafe containers.
Further, the above described PNA or PN disposal procedure requires that the user (or associate) handle or hold the PN while the pen is unscrewed therefrom; this creates the possibility of a potentially dangerous “stick.” Also, if the user (or associate) tries to insert the PN into the outer shield to form a PNA, then additional handling is again required with the possibility of a “stick”.
The present invention provides a unique single sharps container having (i) a totally “no-touch” means for a user of a PNA to transfer a used PN from a pen into the container for safe storage therein without, as indicated, any touching of the used PN by the user, and (ii) a companion means for the safe storage of used medical syringes in the container.